The Easiest Soap Recipe

Guest Author - Winsome Tapper

Crisco® soap is probably the easiest soap you’ll ever make. It was my first successful soap recipe. I cannot remember where I found the recipe on the internet, but what attracted me to it was that it seemed simple and I did not have to try to understand much to make it. This recipe is excellent for those who may be a bit daunted by the various oils and calculations that accompany other soap recipes.

Hydrogenated fats were created to replace oils that were in short supply for soap making during the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, these were later used to replace vegetable and animal fats used in frying and the baking industry. Hydrogenated fats, though they exist as pariahs amidst the American health conscious craze, are heroes in the soaping room.

Hydrogenated fats are the unsung heroes of soapmaking oils. Hydrogenated oils, when combined with other base oils are the perfect starting point to an unlimited repertoire of creative oil combinations.

Why?

1. Produce a hard bar of soap
2. Inexpensive
3. Abundant supply – even for those living in Tiny Town America
4. Juxtaposed next to or amidst any other ingredient, hydrogenated oils which are usually made from refined soybean oil, allow other ingredients to shine through.

Instructions
Melt vegetable shortening in large pot. Let cool until lukewarm or use thermometer and check to make sure it is between 100 - 120 degrees Farenheit. Dilute lye in water and leave somewhere safe and out of the way to cool; preferably in another room or outside.

After melted Crisco® and lye water have cooled down to a warm and manageable(100-120 degrees Fahrenheit), add the lye water to the melted oil in the pot. Use a large whisk, large spoon or stick blender to blend the mixture together.

Vegetable shortening usually comes to trace quickly. Stir in a circular and figure eighths pattern, stopping each five or so minutes to rest. The mixture is traced once it becomes a thick gravy like consistency and produces motion trails on the surface of the mixture when stirred.

Note:
Fragrance should be added at trace. Stir thoroughly and quickly. Rationale for this is that some fragrances cause the mixture to seize, so you want to mix and pour this in the mold as soon as possible.

Pour soap mixture into lined mold and cover with a cardboard or wooden cover, or anything that will completely cover the soap without touching the surface to finish the process of saponification. Then, insulate with a blanket or other large thick cloth and leave for 12-18 hours. Soap should be firm and some what dry to the touch. Remember, afer saponifying, the soap still has traces of lye in it, so it is important to handle it carefully with gloves on in a well ventilated area. After donning gloves, unmold soap loaf onto a towel or butcher’s paper and cut into bars.

Place in a ventilated container, like a shallow box lined with paper to cure for 4-6 weeks before using.

Crisco® is a registered trademark of The J.M. Smucker Company.

Other Related Articles
Soap making involves the use of lye which is classified by NIOSH (National Institute for Workplace Safety) as a hazardous material. Making soap involves the use of lye combined with water. According to NIOSH’s guide to chemicals, one of the many incompatibilities and reactivities of lye is water. Sodium hydroxide is an irritant and will dissolve or corrode all organic compounds, therefore, it is important to understand how to handle this volatile chemical in all its complexities to make soap safely. Click Here To Read - Equipment Used to Make Soap Article.

Sources for Hydrogenated Oils
Hydrogenated oil is often sold wherever restaurant and foodservice supplies are sold. Hydrogenated oil is also known as vegetable shortening, deep frying hydrogenated oil or soybean shortening. It is usually a combination of oils including soybean and or canola oil. Check yellow pages for companies that sell groceries to restaurants. Also, you could check with your local restaurants to see which supplier delivers groceries to them.

Another great source for hydrogenated oil is from online soap making suppliers. Though shipping may be high, yet the cost of shipping 20-50 pounds of hydrogenated fat is worth paying the price for shipping since it is a realtively inexpensive fat. Columbus Foods is a reliable supplier of base oils for soapmaking. They are located in Chicago, Illinois.Click Here to Visit Website.